Glitched In
by JustSomeAverageGuy
Summary: Traveling in and out of different worlds is stranger than it may seem. Note: Part 1 (This story) is set before the movie, and the sequel is set after the story.
1. C1: Opportunity

**A/N: Well, this is my first fanfic ever, and I'm really unexperienced with how stories are posted, so something might be a bit off. Don't hesitate to criticise my writing, though, because it does improve my writing. Anyways, hope you like it!**

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_CRACK-A-BOOM!_

The flash of lightning illuminated the sky for a split-second, lighting up the pavement in front of me, followed by a deafening noise of thunder.

"Man, this week just keeps on getting better." I thought to myself. I mean, who enjoys a week almost entirely spent in your house with nothing to do but finish work, and when you finally decide to go out to hang out in the arcade not so far from where you live, it just _happens_ to rain at the same moment you start going out. Real hard.

A few horrible minutes later, I finally arrived at the arcade. There was nothing special or new about the arcade, and all the games appeared to be functioning normally. I don't know why, but ever since I had heard of the Turbo-Time incident, I had started to think that there was something more than just circuit boards and all that stuff inside the game.

Anyways, to start off, I have black hair (which is normally slightly messy), and you can normally see me wearing glasses, a white or blue shirt and jeans. Most people call me John. I've always been obsessed with video games, and ever since I was the age of 8, I started going to Mr. Litwaks' arcade 3 times a week or so, and I _loved_ it. I normally stay in the arcade whenever I'm free, and no matter what, I've always came back to Fix-it-Felix Jr. and DDR. Sugar Rush isn't exactly my favorite, even if that's the game I'm best at. I say so, because to me, it's pretty uninteresting (Mario-Kart is way better-more powerups, more tracks, etc.). And Heroes' Duty? Puh-leese. I've always hated shooting games.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not paranoid and I don't suffer from any kind of mental illness, but _still_. There had to be something that happened after the arcade was closed. One time, I was helping Mr. Litwak close his arcade (we get along pretty well, and my father was a very close friend of his, so you _could_ say that I was his part-time helper), and as I was about to lock the doors, I looked back one last time, and something seemed a bit off.

I went back inside to inspect the games more, and sure enough, something didn't seem right. For example, Sugar Rush normally had demo races when nobody was playing it, but this time, it seemed a lot more different and I'm pretty sure that they didn't shout insults at each other. King Candy had also not been featured in the demo, as I think that it was an update in the game updates. However, I was really sleepy at that time, so I didn't really pay it much attention, and without another glance, shut the doors and locked them tight.

To think of it, I think something _was_ happening, and I probably should've taken that chance to check the game more thoroughly. As I was going into the arcade, I found my chance. Mr. Litwak motioned for me to come to him, and then said, "Hey, John. Do you mind if you help me take care of this arcade for a couple of days?"

"Sure!" I smiled, hardly believing how fortunate and timely that was. Afterwards, I continued, "What are you going away for?" Mr. Litwaks' smile faded, and I knew something had happened.

"Well… you remember Timmy, right?" Once I heard his name, I immediately stopped smiling. Timmy was Mr. Litwaks' son, and he had been having a few problems lately. Vomiting, fever, headache... The list went on and on.

"What happened?" I replied, suddenly looking serious.

"Well, we got a report from the hospital yesterday."

"What'd it say?"

"Well, it seemed like he had this kind of disease which wasn't lethal, but it would cause him a lot of pain, so he'd have to stay in the hospital for a small while." Hearing that, a wave of relief suddenly hit me. Mr. Litwak continued. "I just want to see how he's doing, but I don't want to leave the arcade closed." By now, he was staring at the floor, emotionless.

"Well, my two-week holiday just started, so I guess that you could leave for 10 days or so." I said, trying to cheer him up.

"Really? Thank you! How can I repay you?" He was now once his cheerful self again.

"Relax, Mr. Litwak. There's no need to repay me. Just think of it like… Work experience."

At nighttime, Mr. Litwak told us that it was closed. As I was about to leave the arcade, he stopped me and gave me the keys, and a bit of paper which had 'everything I needed to know' on it. It said the opening time, closing time, and what a person should do in a certain situation. I thought that it was fair enough, so with a nod of thanks and a wave, I headed back home.

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**A/N:** **No, this is NOT going to be a story where 'I' go to the game world (more like te opposite) unless you want it to be... Anyways, you probably heard this a million times before, but please review if you can. I really wanna know whether I should continue writing this, revise it again, or dodge flying tomatoes.**

**Note: Does anyone have a good idea for a title? I want you guys to also review on what you think should happen next. Until next time!**


	2. C2: Realisation

**A/N: Well, the first chapter was a good result. I had a bit of difficulty writing this chapter, and I had to keep on staring outside to think of what I could do. It's a bit like writing a fun essay. Anyways, here you go!**

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The next day, I woke up pretty early and checked the first part of the piece of paper Mr. Litwak gave me again. It said:

**Opening Time: 9:00 A.M.**

**Closing Time: 7:30 P.M.**

I thought it was pretty simple, and I'd only have to stay there for around 10 to 11 hours. So, grabbing my backpack I had packed earlier that night (it had my keys, wallet, note, and mostly everything I needed, including lunch), I headed over to Litwaks' Arcade.

When I had arrived there, a crowd of kids had already gathered at the door, and they were all very excited. Once I unlocked the door, they all ran in like crazy and almost trampled me. I was about to tell them that it wasn't opening time yet, but then I thought to myself, "Who cares? It'll just allow Mr. Litwak to earn more money." So I went into the counter, and sat down, looking at those children excitedly playing the games.

At around noon, I ate my lunch while rereading the rest of the piece of paper Mr. Litwak gave me, hoping that I would be able to remember some of the important things included in there. Suddenly, a little girl came up to me and said that Sugar Rush wasn't functioning properly.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Well, the game somehow doesn't show the players!" She cried out, and then gestured for me to follow her to the game.

It was true. The screen showed the 'Chews Your Racer' screen, but none of the characters seemed to have appeared. Just as I was about to dig into my pocket and give the little girl her quarters back, the racers suddenly appeared, acting as if nothing strange had happened at all.

"Hm. Problem solved, I guess. If anything else goes wrong, just tell me again, okay?" I said, slightly confused.

"Thanks, mister!" She then jumped onto the chair, selecting Taffyta, and proceeded to the game almost immediately. However, as I was about to go back, a thought just hit me. Normally, when a character was selected, they'd do a little dance or action before loading the race. "Well, at least now I have an excuse for staying in late at night to inspect the games." I thought to myself.

At around seven, the children started to go back home and there were only a few people left at the arcade.

_KA-BOOM!_

"Oh, not again..." I looked outside and sure enough, it was raining heavily, with an occasional flash.

After a long 30 minutes of me just staring out of the glass door, hoping that the rain would end before I left, I noticed that it was closing time, and I shouted, "Closing time!" The people who were still in the arcade sighed, and then left their games, heading for the exit.

When they left, I checked the arcade for a small while, trying to see if anything peculiar was happening. I also checked the back of the games, seeing if something was hidden there, but nothing special was found. Afterwards, I took Mr. Litwaks' keys out, went outside and locked the doors. However, as I was halfway back to my home, I realised something: I had forgotten to take the quarters out! Knowing that, I turned around and ran back to Litwaks' Arcade.

As I unlocked the doors, something definitely strange was happening. Fix-it-Felix's screen didn't show Ralph in it and there seemed to be a party going on in one of the apartments, DDR's how-to-play screen didn't have Yuni in there, and once again, the screen in Sugar Rush showed the demo race, but the views were definitely different and I had never seen that map on the demo race before. I freaked out, and dived behind the counter.

"What in the world is going on?"

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**A/N: Well, that's chapter two. Sorry about this one being a bit shorter than the other one, but I wanted to put this out on the same day. Tell me if there's any problem with my writing so far, and do review on what you think should happen next! Also, I'm sorry if you think I'm going too slow, but that's how fast I like my stories to be. Until next chapter!**_  
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**Votes:**

**Me going into the game world: 1**

**They going into the real world: 2**


	3. C3: Interaction

**A/N: Well, it seems like most people want me to make someone from the inside of the game come out. But this is held before the movie, so it's going to be harder than I think. It's also going to take a lot longer than usual, but it'll still be done (I hope!).**

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"What in the world is going on?" I thought.

Slowly, I stood up from the counter, crawled out and looked at the game Sugar Rush. It seemed that its' 'demo race' was just about to finish, and I was waiting for it to revert back to the title screen.

It didn't.

Instead of reverting back to the title screen, the screen showed the finish, waiting for the rest of the racers to arrive at the finish line, like a real race. It seemed like it was being played, but there was nobody on the seat. Thinking that the game had been bugged, I was about to reach for the plug, when I heard a muffled scream. It sounded like a girls' scream, but that was impossible. There was only one person in the arcade, and that was me.

I heard another shout, and this time it was much clearer.

"STOP!", it screamed.

I paused for a moment, wondering if the source of the voice came from the machine, or if I was just plain crazy and was hearing things.

"DON'T UNPLUG US!" it screamed again.

Gathering my courage, I reluctantly looked at the screen, hoping that the sound didn't come from it. Once I looked at the machine, I almost jumped back at what I saw. One of the racers (I think she was called Candlehead or something) was staring right at me, waving her hands around and jumping.

"What the~"

Suddenly, one of the racers (I think that was Taffyta Fudgemutton or something) behind her pulled her back and shouted at her.

"What are you trying to do? Disclose the secret that we're real and scare the fudge out of him?"

Now, personally, I don't think anyone would take that easily. But given the current circumstances and that I was almost thinking that I was crazy, I was kind of relived to hear that my suspicions were correct. Kind of.

By that time, I was already staring at the screen, mouth open. I snapped myself out of it, and decided that I would try to see if I could get any more information.

"Y-y-you're actually alive?" I stuttered.

The racers turned their heads at the sound of my voice.

"Um... Yeah. We've always been alive." Candlehead said, slightly nervous.

"So... What was that race you had just done?"

"That's the random roster race." Taffyta said.

"What's that?"

"Well..." She took the lollipop out of her mouth, and then continued, "You know how 9 of our racers are selected randomly everyday to be played?"

I remembered that when I checked the website of Sugar Rush, it had said something similar to that, so I nodded.

"The first 9 racers who cross the finish line in the random roster race get to be in the random roster tomorrow."

"Oh." I paused, suddenly remembering the incident that had happened this afternoon. "What happened in the afternoon? You guys seemed like you took a long time to get to the roster positions."

"Well, some _glitch_ glued our wheels of the karts, and we had to spend almost an hour getting it off." She spat the word 'glitch' out like it was the worst thing to be. I felt pretty sorry for her, so I decided it'd be best not to remind her about it, and change the subject.

"How about the other games? Are the characters real too?" I asked.

"Of course! Why'd you think that they didn't?"

"Because they'd die, in games like Heroes' Duty!" Upon hearing the games' name, a few of the boys and girls started to snicker.

"They regenerate, dumbo!" Candlehead interrupted, having trouble to stop joining in the laughter.

"Oh. Well, I'll go see the others n~" I stopped, and stared at something moving in the background. "Wait... What's that?"

They all turned around to see what I was looking at, and the 'thing' suddenly turned blue and teleported to a different location. They all stared at it, and ran towards the 'thing'.

"Wait! Where are you guys... Ah, never mind. I'll go check out the other games first." As I was about to turn around, I heard the sound of thunder. The girls shrieked out in horror and ran around in circles, including the thing (which I think was a girl) in the background. I was about to ask them what was happening before I thought, "Wait... Their reaction to the thunder is the same as when I was about to pull the plug! Of course! If a blackout occurred due to a thunderstorm, the result would basically be the same as if they were unplugged."

After calming them down, I said, "Don't worry, girls. I'll get the backup electricity generator working, and even if a blackout occurs, you won't... Well, actually, what happens?"

"Well, if it's not plugged back in fast enough, this world would disappear and erase the data of whoever is still inside it!"

"Oh." I suddenly felt sorry for those who had died when a game had been unplugged.

I went to the electricity generator behind one of the machines, and started it up. However, I saw that there was a hole in the wire, so I bent down to inspect it. However, as I touched the wire, a shock went through me, and my body seemed like it was going to turn into jelly. It didn't hurt at the start, but then it gradually started to hurt more and more. I didn't know how much longer this would last, and suddenly, I felt a sharp shock of pain go through me, and then I felt like I had fallen through a hole in the desert. Before you could say 'Candy-canes', I blacked out.

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**A/N: This was something that took me around 3 hours to write, and possibly more. I kept on feeling distracted, and I had basically no idea of what I could do, so I rewrote this around 3 times. Anyway, please review (I probably did a lot worse in this chapter) and tell me if there are any things I need to change. Oh, and the Taffyta Fudgemutton thing was meant to be like that (I know that the last name was actually Muttonfudge).**


	4. C4: Glitch

**A/N: This is actually becoming really hard to write, and so I might update once every day or so. However, once Easter break is over, I guess I'll have to start doing a lot more work and so I might update once or twice a week. Anyways, hope you like the story!**

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When I woke up, I found myself in the middle of a desert. I forgot what had happened recently, and thought I was stuck in one of those nightmares, so I pinched myself. "Ouch!" Suddenly, I remembered last nights' events, and quickly scanned the area around me. I found a giant hole right behind me, and there was a small colourful city in the distance. Thanking how fortunate I was to have woken up near a town, I trudged over to the city.

As I walked closer to city, I saw that the road was made out of... Black liquorice? I then remembered I was in Sugar Rush. I wandered around, looking at my surroundings, and in a few minutes, I heard the sounds of engines roaring. Finding the source of the sound, I found a group of kids surrounding another girl, looking about the same age as them. I had never seen her before, and suddenly, she disappeared into code for a split-second before reforming again a few feet away from her original position. I then realised she was the girl who was in the background, just before they went screaming around like crazy from the thunder. She was standing next to a small kart which seemed like she built it herself. "Pretty impressive," I thought to myself. "Not many people could've done that, especially a girl like her." I then wondered if she was actually a real human being, who accidentally got into the game, like me. I thought that the group of kids were going to praise her, but I saw how worried the girl looked. This couldn't be good.

Yep, my predictions were right. Instead of praising her because of her hard work, they pushed her into the mud, hurt her (both verbally and physically), and even destroyed the car she had made herself. However, she didn't get up and try to fight back. That's what I'd do anyways, but it seemed like that had already happened loads of times, because she didn't seem too affected.

Now, I know what you people are thinking: Why didn't I go to save her? Well, I don't normally get bullied so I wouldn't know what I'd have done at that point, and I'd rather not make enemies so quickly, so I hid behind a rock. I was going to help her later when they left, anyway, and when I saw who was leading the group, I got even more hesitant to interrupt and . It was Taffyta.

You may also be wondering why I'm so worried about Taffyta leading that group. It's because when I first started the game, I chose Taffyta, because she was the fastest (other than King Candy, but he looks pretty weird, if you ask me) in the roster. From then on, I played, using her as the avatar each time, and I slowly started to like her. You can imagine how awkward I felt when I found out she was actually a bully.

Once they left and I made sure they were out of sight, I jumped over the rock and ran towards the girl they had been bullying.

"What do you want?" She shouted. I wouldn't blame her for being so hostile to anyone, because it seemed like everyone disliked her. For what reason, anyway?

"I just want to help. You okay?" I stuck out a hand toward her, trying to help her back up.

"Just leave me alone!" She got up by herself, and ran away.

"Hey! Wait!" I ran after her, but she was a lot faster than I'd expected for a nine-year old. I stopped at a volcano, not knowing where she went. I looked around, and suddenly, I saw a part of the wall of the volcano wobble a bit, and so I went closer to it. I was about to walk closer, when I tripped and braced myself for the impact which never came. Getting up, I saw that the land around me glowed a strange red, and then realised I was inside the volcano.

"Hello? Is anyone here?" I asked.

"What are you doing here?" I turned around to the noise, and she was facing me. "Are you going to laugh at me like the others?"

"No! I mean, why would I? So far, there's not a reason why I shouldn't like you! What happened which made you bullied by others?"

As if on cue, she disappeared in a flash of blue pixels, and reformed again a few feet away from where she was previously standing. "That," she said. "Nobody seems to like me because I'm a glitch."

"What's so bad about that?" I felt really sorry for her. She was being hated for something that she couldn't control.

"How should I know?" She sounded slightly annoyed. "It's not like there's a special rule that glitches should be hated by everyone."

"If so, then why don't you leave your game? Maybe someone out there could take care of you and all that."

She hung her head and sighed. "Glitches can't leave their games, a-doy."

"Oh. You know, I've actually been chasing you all this time, and now I _still_ haven't asked you what was your name."

"It's Vanellope. Vanellope von Schweetz."

"Well, Vanellope. How about you show me around this game, and let's see if there's anything I can help you with. Deal?"

Upon hearing that, she smiled at me for the very first time.

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**A/N: Well, that's Chapter 4. I've never written in someone elses' persona before in a fanfic, and I've always been bad at it. Feel free to PM or review about the story if the characters are OOC or if there are any other ways to improve it. I did this at around 1:00 AM, so I probably made some, if not loads of mistakes.**

**P.S. Also, if you wanna see something happen in this story, just review or PM me, and I'll try to reply ASAP.  
P.P.S. Phew! 4 chapters within 24 hours! I'm probably not going to update that frequently anymore, as I'm now not really allowed to use the computer for long periods of time.**


	5. C5: Holes

**A/N: Yep, this is definitely going to take a lot longer than I had originally thought. I've also got a lot less time on my hands than I thought I originally would have, but I'm pretty sure that I'll still be able to update once every day or two.**

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"Last one to the Candy-cane forest is a rotten-egg!"

"Vanellope, wait!" I sighed in exasperation. I hoped she always wasn't like this, but then again, she was in a world fully, if not almost entirely made out of candy, so she probably had sugar rushes all the time.

"Come on, slow-poke!"

"Vanellope. Seriously." She was actually a lot more playful than I thought she was when I first met her, but I guess that all 9-year olds would act the same way. "Also, aren't you afraid of being bullied by others right now?"

"Of course not, silly. They'll all be getting prepared for when the players will start to choose them."

Hearing that, I suddenly remembered that I had locked the arcade last night when coming to collect the quarters. "Looks like they'll be wondering why nobody's playing them and freak out. That'll be payback for bullying her that day, I guess. I still have to tell Mr. Litwak that I'll be absent, though. Wait a minute. I forgot to take my bag with me when I came to the city! I need to get it back!" I thought. All of a sudden, Vanellope snapped me out of my trance.

"Hello? Stinkbrain there?" I realised she was standing on top of me, waving her hand in front of my eyes. "You know, I've actually never asked what your name is or what game you've come from either."

I plucked her off my head and put her onto the ground. "I'm not from any game. I somehow got sucked in when I tried to connect the generator to your machine, so now I'm here. And my name's' John."

"Oh, I remember you now. You've played this game before, haven't you. And you chose Taffyta all of the time! I also remember you saying that she was the best!" She glared at me accusingly.

"Hey, calm down! It's not like you were in the roster or anything, and you misheard me. I said she was the fastest, not the best." Actually, I did remember saying that, but then I meant to imply that she was fastest. "And now, if you excuse me, I'm heading over to the desert to get my stuff back. Oh, and also, you know that gluing the racers wheels' wasn't a smart move. You could've been unplugged if that happened again, or put out of order."

"The desert? You'll never find that exact spot out there, dumbo. Also, I did that ages ago! They should have found out about it last night!"

"Anyway, I'll probably be able to find my bag out there, because I found a landmark near where I landed."

"Landmark? What landmark?"

"There was this giant hole, and I don't know why it was there. It seemed dangerous, though."

"I've been to the desert loads of times, but I've never seen it." She looked at me like I was lying.

"Maybe it's because it had appeared after the last time you came there, pea-brain."

"Hey!"

I chuckled a bit. "Anyway, I'm going, and you're free to come if you want to. Just don't cause any trouble." After saying that, I headed towards the desert, and of course, she followed me.

Ten minutes later, I had found the spot where I had left my bag. The hole had gotten smaller from last time, but I didn't really pay that much attention to it. I checked the inside of my bag to see if anything was taken, and thankfully, nothing was. Suddenly, a force from the back hit me, and I came headfirst into the... Powder? I didn't really know what type of candy it was, but at least it didn't taste too bad. I turned around, and saw Vanellope with a ball of the powder, and she threw it at me.

"SNOWBALL FIGHT!" Putting my backpack down and grabbing a handful of powder while running, I stopped for a small moment to throw a ball at her, but she hit me in the back first. It was a lot more painful than I would have expected, and it made me fall facefirst into the ground again. "Great. Just when I thought we were going to have some fun." I thought.

"How do you throw that hard?" I moaned, while rubbing my back.

"Well, when you throw rocks at mentos for entertainment for more than a decade, it starts to get pretty easy and your arms get strong."

"What do you mean?"

She sighed. "You didn't even notice that there were mentos stalactites hanging on the top of Diet Cola Volcano and that there was a bubbling pool of Diet Cola in the center, square-eyes?"

"Well _I'm sorry,_ but I didn't live in the volcano for more than 10 years."

"You should have at least noticed the lava, though. Come on, now that you've got your bag, let me show you around!" She turned around, and then said, "Hey, look! A giant hole!"

I giggled a bit, and then said, "You just noticed that? Look who's calling me square-eyes!"

She thought for a bit, trying to think of an excuse. After a small amount of time (I think she couldn't think of one), she ran towards the hole. "Say, what's it actually like to be in the human world? It must be a lot better there."

"Well, not exactly. Unlike your world, everything isn't made out of candy. Also, people like Taffyta also exist in our world, and what's more, you only get one life. Once you're dead, you don't regenerate. We're not made out code like you people." Yes, I know that before I thought Vanellope was a human, but I don't think that they'd glitch. Also, she seemed familiar, though I had never seen anyone like her before.

"Well that just sucks. Anyway, come on! We've got loads to do!" And off she ran.

I rolled my eyes, and then followed her.

Suddenly, I heard a terrified scream.

**"HELP!"**

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**Me: Yea, I know I'm evil to leave you guys hanging at that point. But anyway, I was thinking that I used the words 'I thought' and 'Suddenly' a bit too much.**

**Vanellope: Yeah, you actually do.**

**Me: Anyways, I think that I'm gonna make it so if it's a thought, it's going to be italicised. I still haven't got an idea for how I'll stop using 'Suddenly' so much, though. ****Please review and tell me what you think (and also if there are any errors)!**

**Vanellope: You probably made loads.**

**Me: *Sigh***


	6. C6: Volcano

**A/N: Well, it seems that some people didn't really like the way the story was heading, so I had a bit of trouble writing this chapter. If you feel like that, please review or PM me about what you don't really like, and then give me an idea that I could use, because if not, it's going to take me a lot longer to update.**

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"Hi, Mr. Litwak. This is John."

"Hi, John. What's wrong?"

"It's nothing, really. Just got a bit tired, that's all."

"Job wearin' you down?" He chuckled a bit.

"Kind of. Anyway, I'm sorry, but I found out that I was a bit busy, so I can't really take care of the shop. Do you mind if I just keep it locked until you get back?"

"Oh." His voice sounded a bit disappointed, but he quickly tried to turn back into his cheerful self. "That's fine! Just make sure you keep it locked, okay?"

"Thanks, Mr. Litwak. I'm really sorry about that." I hung up, and thought it was a bit strange how I could still communicate with others through a phone. However, I remembered that I was actually still in this world, just in a game. Leaning back on the sponge-cake bed that Vanellope had prepared for me, I heard a cheerful voice.

"So, how'd it go?"

"Okay, I guess. Mr. Litwak was pretty disappointed about it, but he said that it was fine for me to just lock it up for the time until he comes back."

Vanellope, who had sensed my depression, said, "Come on, lazybones! I really really really wanna show you around!"

I sighed. I mean, who doesn't get tired after an half-an-hour or so of hauling up a girl from a giant hole? Sitting upright to face her, I said, "Vanellope, need I remind you that the reason I am so tired right now is because _you_ almost fell into a hole and probably would have been erased from existence, so I had to spend half-an-hour trying to climb down the hole safely, drag you upwards and climb back out of the hole."

"But it was you who decided to come here in the first place!"

"Yes, but it was you who decided to follow me."

"You tempted me!"

"Anyway, the reason why I accidentally came here is because I was trying to help you people!"

"Well.. But..." She stuttered, trying to think of a response. She probably wasn't used to losing in arguments.

"Fine," I said, getting up to my feet. "Where shall we start the tour, ma'am? Oh, and once you finish showing me around, we've got to find a way back into my own world."

"Yay!" She hopped around, like she was suffering from ADHD. In fact, I think that she probably is, with all this sugar around her.

_(2 hours later, when she has almost finished showing me around)_

"And those are the mountains!" She said, pointing to them. "I always snowboard on them when I have time! In fact, why don't we do it right now? Let's go back and get the boards! Last one there is a sore-loser!"

"Woah, hold on there, missy."

"Hey!"

I continued on. "We are definitely not doing that. For one, I have never went snowboarding before, and for two, I thought we were supposed to find an exit so I could go home and back to the real world! We don't have much time!"

She ignored me, and started to run back to Diet Cola Mountain. I took a deep breath, and ran after her. She probably wouldn't stop doing... Something, until she got her way, so I guessed that it'd be a waste of time trying to stop her. Suddenly, my phone rang, and both of us stopped in our tracks. I said to her, "Go on, Vanellope. I'll catch up to you later."

"Like that'll happen, slow-poke!" And off she ran.

I shook my head, and checked who was calling me. It was probably my friends' number, as it was one that I recognised but didn't save. I pressed the 'Answer' button and said, "Hi, John here."

"Hi, John. I was wondering if you could come over for dinner tomorrow?"

I felt a wave of guilt rush into me. Me and that friend didn't get to hang-out that much, and the last time I remembered seeing him was about 4 months ago. However, I answered, "Sorry, but I'm really busy at that time. Maybe we can hang-out some time later?"

"Okay." He hung up. How I wish I was home...

I sat on a jawbreaker for a few minutes, thinking of my family. As I was standing back up, I heard a loud rumble coming in the direction of Diet-Cola Mountain.

Dashing off to the mountain, I thought, "What has Vanellope done this time?"

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**A/N: Sorry for not updating that much, it's hard to decide on what to write when you've got two ideas clashing against each other (I completely rewrote this chapter). I have decided on who will be going out of the game, and that is my FINAL decision. I've also planned on what will have happened later. Don't like? Don't read.**

**P.S. I will change the summary some time soon, and this story is turning out to be a lot more different than expected, so I kinda need you guys to help me think of a new title.**

**Note: Yes, a game character WILL be coming out of the machine. That was what I was focusing on until I thought of a new idea (like a detour) and so... This is what happened.**

**Reviews are welcome!**


	7. C7: Friend

**A/N: I'll try to update more, and I might be able to have more free time than during the past few days, so expect an update from me once every day or two, and if I don't update within that time, I'm probably working on something else or going through a rough patch.**

* * *

_BOOM!_

The explosion which seemed to come from the volcano shook the ground slightly, making me almost lose my balance and fall. However, I ignored it, and continued to run towards the volcano, hoping that Vanellope was still okay.

_"She's not dumb enough to set off a giant explosion with the mentos, is she?"_

Yeah, I know she's not dumb enough to do so, and even if she got killed by it, she would regenerate. But seeing how she's a glitch and all, I don't really know whether she would actually regenerate or not. Also, if she exploded the volcano, where would I... _We_ live? I made a mental note to myself that once we had finished snowboarding (if we even got the chance to), I wouldn't let her distract me from finding a way back, no matter how pleading she looked.

When I finally got near Diet-Cola Volcano, I knew something was going on. The explosions had stopped for some while, meaning that the source of the explosion had gone. Had Vanellope...

"BOO!" A voice came out behind me.

"Woah!" I was so surprised that I jumped, not noticing that I was actually on the top of a small hill. Thankfully, there were no jawbreakers nearby, so my head didn't crack onto any of them, and I got saved by a giant marshmallow, which, if it hadn't been there, would've made me crash into the war of the volcano.

Half-a-minute after the incident, I stood up and realised that there were no other marshmallows or jawbreakers nearby.

_"That little brat must have set this all up!"_

Looking around, and finally spotted her trying to hide behind a bush made by some kind of candy-don't ask me what kind of candy it was, I don't eat candy that much-and walked over.

"Hm... Wherever could she be? She seems to be hiding in such a great spot that I can't even find her!" I said, pretending not to notice her. As soon as I approached the bush she was behind, she jumped up and tried to scare me. However, this time I was prepared, and I caught her in midair.

I glared at her, and then said, "Vanellope! Seriously, don't scare me like that!" She was about to make a smart comment when she saw how serious I was.

"It was just a joke! Don't take it so seriously!"

"Just a joke? If you had planned wrongly and made me hit the wall of the volcano instead of the marshmallow, I could've gotten a concussion or a lot worse! I was also really worried that you could've gotten hurt!"

Now, although I was really angry at that point, I'm still human and knew that they were programmed to be like this, so I put her down gently on the ground instead of dropping or throwing her and stormed back to the volcano.

A few minutes later, she entered the volcano.

"Finish having your tantrum, diaper baby?" She looked around, and I was nowhere to be seen. "Hello? Stinkbrain here? Hello?" She seemed slightly scared, probably because she thought that either I had gone missing or I was trying to scare her.

"Is this where you keep the snowboards?" I shouted out, somewhere on the other side of the volcano.

"No!" She shouted back, somewhat relieved and happy. "It's over here, dumbo!"

"Oh." I stepped out of where I thought the snowboards were, and smacked my hand on my forehead.

_(A few minutes later)_

"Come on, slow-poke! Don't make me wait all day!"

"Just wait! I'm coming!"

I hurried to the top of the mountain, and surprisingly, it wasn't too cold, despite the fact I was dressed for a warm day. After I had got onto the snowboard, I was about to survey the mountain to see if it was safe or not, but then, of course, Vanellope just _had_ to push me off.

"Gaaah! Help!"

Strangely, I knew how to control the board and somehow managed to dodge the obstacles in the way, and finally when I was nearing the bottom of the mountain, I stopped. I then looked to the back of me to see where Vanellope was, but I couldn't find her.

"Looking for me?"

"Yes, and now I'm going to find a way back." I put on my backpack, and started to walk away.

"Can't we go again? It's fun!"

I continued walking, not even looking back. "No. I really need to get back home." Vanellope sensed that I was being really serious.

"Why? We've got loads of time on our hands!"

"And its' best I take advantage of that time, and once I've found it, I'm leaving." I then stopped walking and turned my head around, slightly puzzled. "Why do you care about this so much, anyway?"

Vanellope looked down at her feet and said in a quiet voice, "I... l-l-like you, I guess." She glitched.

I turned around entirely, walked back to her and asked in a really confused way, "What?"

"I m-mean..." She said, glitching once more, "It's not exactly that fun being by yourself all the time, you know. It can get pretty boring after a long time, living by yourself, so when you've got a friend, it's hard to let them go."

_Friend._ The word echoed in my mind.

I nodded, showing that I understood what she meant, as I also felt the same way at times. I patted her on the back, and gave her a friendly smile, saying, "It'll be all right. I just have to find a way to get back, and once we find it, I'll stay for a short while before going, okay?" Suddenly, I had a thought and reached for my backpack. I took my second phone out (always be prepared for any situation), and gave it to Vanellope.

"What's this?"

"It's a phone. Basically, it allows people to communicate through far distances."

"So how do the others hear me?"

"They have their own phones, so when you dial a string of numbers, then you basically can hear them speak and talk back to that specific phone. So far, I've saved a few important numbers, but the only one that you have to worry about," I said, showing her the contacts list, "Is this one here." I pointed at a point in the phone which said 'Me'.

"How do I call you?"

"You press that green button."

"Which green button?"

"Here, let me show you. Let's go back to the volcano first."

And I taught her how to use that phone, spending around an hour or so.

"And that's to go to the internet."

"Intern-net? What's that?"

I laughed a bit, and then said, "No, internet. I-N-T-E~"

"I understand, Mr. Know-it-all."

Ignoring her, I said, "I'm not going to teach you about that because I'd rather have you not using it."

"Why? You hiding something from me?"

"No, but it's not really much use to you. You basically use that to browse for stuff, but normally you'd use something else for that, not a phone, because it can't do a lot of things."

"Oh." She looked down in disappointment.

"Anyway, I think it's time to take a break now. I'll give this back to you when I'm going." Yawning, I put the phone back into my backpack, but before I did it, I looked at the time on the watch. "1:00 a.m.?!" I exclaimed. "But it's still bright outside!"

"It's always bright outside, a-doy!"

"Oh yeah. I forgot." I said, calming down. I think I'm going to go to bed now. As I snuggled onto the sponge-cake, I was about to turn to my side, when Vanellope suddenly jumped onto the bed. "Vanellope!" I shouted. "What are you doing?!" She ignored me, and snuggled onto the same bed, right beside me. It was slightly calming, really, so I put my hand over her in a comforting way and in a few minutes' time, we both went to sleep.

_"Friend." _The word still kept on echoing in my mind.

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**A/N: Yeah, this is pretty long (about 1,500 words, most chapters are about 1,000 words or less). And nope, this is NOT a Vanellope x OC fanfic. I don't really like romantic stories that much. I also had a bit of trouble with this chapter, so this may be not as good as the other chapters. Please tell me if there's anything that should be changed.**

**Reviews are welcome, and please post your ideas if you have any.**


	8. C8: Exit

**A/N: Well, I've gotten past the 3rd writers' block I've had when writing this story, but after that I had almost no ideas of what to do next. Sorry if the pacing's a bit slow, but I like it that way. Also, right now I'm working on something else, so I maybe update slightly slower than normal.**

* * *

Something felt a bit odd when I woke up. Strangely, there was this kind of aroma in the air which was pretty sweet, and my bed was a lot bouncier and smaller than usual.

Suddenly, I remembered that I was inside the game 'Sugar Rush'. Why do I keep on forgetting this? In fact, I think that I should've put some kind of note on my head or something similar to that if I was going to keep on forgetting the fact that I was in a game. It just seemed so... Unbelievable._  
_

_"Wait a minute. I remember that Vanellope was right beside me when I was sleeping!"_

Full of worry, I glanced over to her bed and checked mine to see if she was hiding anywhere, but she was nowhere to be found. Sighing, I was about to grab my backpack and head out, hoping that she was just outside the volcano, when I spotted a note. It read:

_Hiya, stinkbrain! Anyway, I'm going out to the desert! Meet me there!_

_P.S. Make sure that you hurry, slowpoke! I wanna show you something!_

Rolling my eyes, I stuffed the note in my pocket, zipped up my backpack, and...

Wait, what?

I had made sure my backpack had been closed last night! Taking out the piece of paper, I reread it again, making sure I hadn't misread anything. I then flipped it onto the other side, revealing the answer to my mystery. It read:

_Oh, and I almost forgot to tell you that I took your second phone out and tested it a little. Call me when you wake up!_

I sighed once more. _"I already told her not to take my phone without permission!" _Picking up my bag and taking the other phone out, I headed towards the exit of the volcano to get a better signal and dialled the other phones' number. Fortunately, I taught her well and she managed to answer the call.

"Hiya! You there yet?"

"I told you NOT to take my phone out of the bag without permission! And you told me to call you once I woke up, so how am I supposed to be there?"

"Aww, is diaper baby mad?"

"No, and the only diaper baby I can see around here is you, Miss Glitchypants."

"Hey! Don't call me that!"

"Aww, is the diaper baby mad again? Does she need an extra glitch-proof diaper?"

"Just come to the desert, John." She hung up.

By now, I could tell that I had seriously overdone the joke. I guessed that the word 'glitch', no matter used in whatever circumstance, would strike something in her. Making a mental note to myself to never mention that again and to apologize to her later, I headed to the desert.

When I arrived at the desert, it was actually a good thing that she had took the phone out, because that place is HUGE! However, I thought that the only reasonable place that we'd meet at would be near the giant hole that had opened up from the desert, and sure enough, I was right. She was sitting by herself a few metres from the hole, looking slightly depressed.

"Hi, Vanellope."

"Hi." She said, not even looking at me.

"I'm sorry about what happened earlier. I never knew that you'd be _that_ hurt. I was just joking around."

"Pinky promise never to say that word again?" She held out her pinky, looking slightly happy.

Now, I think that we'd have to use that word sometime again in our lives, but I didn't want to disappoint her, so I said, "Pinky promise." And we curled up our pinkies against each others.

"So..." I said, "What were you going to show me?

"Well... Before, you said that if we found an exit to the real world then you would still stay here for some time before going back, right?"

"Yeah." I raised an eyebrow, wondering why she asked that question. "I think that I have around 5 or 6 days left, so basically I'm leaving after 6 days or so. Still, you haven't told me what you found."

"I found an exit."

"Excuse me?" I didn't believe that it was _that_ easy to find an exit.

"I said I found an exit!" She shouted.

"Where?"

"The hole, dumbo!"

I thought she was kidding, but after a few seconds of thinking, I realised that she could've been correct. "You still don't have any proof, though."

"I do! I tried dropping a rock in there and I heard a sound somewhere outside the game!"

"How do I know that you're not lying."

"I brought a few rocks along! Test them out yourself!"

"Where'd you get these rocks from, anyway?"

She sighed. "Can't you remember stuff for once, stinkbrain? I throw these rocks at the mentos for entertainment in the volcano!"

"Oh." Afterwards, I picked up a rock and prepared to throw it as hard as I could down the hole.

"Don't throw too~" She shouted, but I had already thrown the rock. "~hard."

I threw it pretty hard. A little too hard, actually. After a few seconds, I heard something breaking, but it seemed slightly muted, meaning that it was probably something outside the game.

"Oops."

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**A/N: Yes, there will be a sequel to this when I've finished it. I also am trying my best to think of interesting events that would happen during that 5-6 days time which I stay in the game, but so far I've got none.**

**Reviews are welcome (again)! I did half of this at around 1:00 AM and finished the rest at around 8 or 9 AM, so there may be a lot of mistakes.**

**P.S. The other Sugar Rush characters will probably be involved.**


	9. C9: Protection

**A/N: Sorry for not updating lately, I just felt lazy. Anyway, on with the story!**

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"Oops." I cursed under my breath. Hopefully Vanellope didn't notice.

"I already told you NOT to throw that hard, stinkbrain, and what did you do? You threw it as hard as you could!"

"Hey, I never knew that a rock could do that much damage!"

"So? I already told you not to!"

"You could've told me not to when you gave me the stones."

"It was your idea to not believe me!"

I knew she was right, so it was probably best that I didn't argue back. I hoped that nothing too valuable was broken, and I'm just glad that I didn't break the newly installed glass door, as my mom would've killed me (and I don't know whether that would've been figurative or literal). But then again, I think that reinforced glass is pretty hard to break (believe me, I've tried). Also, if it _was_ broken, an alarm would've sounded.

"Fine, it was my fault. Anyways, we can go to the top of that mountain to snowboard again if you want to, and I can also see what damage was done. Just don't push me off this time."

A mischievous smile formed on her face. Before she could say anything, I said, "Last one to the volcano has to bring the snowboards to the mountain!" And off I ran to the volcano.

Man, I'm getting more immature by the second.

After a few minutes, I was running in the forest. I turned back and realised that she wasn't even close to me, and I couldn't even see her when I looked behind, but that was probably because of the candy canes. Still, I thought it was pretty strange. It wasn't like her to run that slow, as she's just as fast as me (for a 9-year old, she sure is fast for her age). _"She's just probably trying to trick me." _I thought.

However, after another minute or two, I began to suspect that she wasn't trying to trick me. Just to make sure, I stopped running forward, and shouted out, "Vanellope! If you're hiding, then come out! Otherwise..." I tried to think of something that all kids would fear, and then it hit me. "Otherwise I'll tickle you so hard that you won't be able to walk!"

Nothing happened.

I knew something was wrong and began to run back, my smile turning into a worried frown. After a few minutes, I heard the sound of engines. _"Why does Taffyta's group always interfere at the best moments? I was winning the race and they just had to stop me!"_

Approaching the noise, I hid behind a rock, peeking out to see what was happening, and sure enough, Vanellope was being bullied by some other people. However, this time, there were only 3 people there, and they seemed to be Taffyta, Rancis, and... Candlehead? I never thought of her to be the bullying type.

I couldn't really make out what they were saying, but I doubted that it was something good. Trying to figure out a way to stop them, I saw a long pointed piece of rock candy, and smirked a bit.

_"Perfect."_

At first, I was pretty hesitant to do so, but when I saw Vanellope get pushed into the mud again and again, I began to feel slightly mad. And I'm not one to become mad when someone gets bullied, only sad and pitiful, so when I got mad, you can imagine how sorry I felt for her.

"Leave her alone!" I said, hiding the pointed stick from their point of view. I was originally going to show them that I had a weapon to make them a bit scared to make them leave a bit easier, but in the end I got so mad I almost wanted them to actually ask for it.

As I said that, the trio looked at me, and as Taffyta was about to speak, Candlehead and Rancis gasped.

I continued, walking forward. "She may be what you call a 'glitch', but that does NOT give you a reason to bully her. She also may have a purpose in this game! Glitches do not mean that something wasn't meant to be there, it just means that she was programmed wrongly! She could have this kind of special skill that was accidentally put in wrongly!"

The trio were all looking at the floor, and Taffyta was about to speak up, but I kept on going. "Have you ever thought of how she felt? Have you ever actually wondered about her? How would it feel like if you had no friends, were bullied by others every day and not being able to make a difference at all?"

By now, I was very close to the trio, and it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

"John, please don't do anything stupid." Vanellope pleaded, standing back up.

I looked back at her, and gave her a reassuring nod, and then turned back to Taffyta, and after a short pause, said, "You know what? I think I hate you now."

As she heard this, she winced a bit, probably hurt. I was a bit surprised by this, but then again to say the least, anyone who seemed to be liked by a person a lot, and suddenly becoming hated by that person would've probably done the same.

Afterwards, I grabbed Vanellope's arm and led her away from the scene, and as I turned back to look at the silent trio one last time, I dropped the stick and said to them in a very serious tone, "Think about it."

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**A/N: Welp, that's Chapter 9. I've probably got one or two more chapters to do before I finish with an epilogue.**

**Please review and tell me if any of the characters were out of character or if there were any other problems!**


	10. C10: Thoughts

**A/N: Well, I think that this chapter may be longer than the others. I don't really know, and I don't change my ANs. To me, the AN before the story should be typed before the story is written, and the one after the story should be typed after the story is written. Anyway, on with the story!**

* * *

The following 4 days which I spent with Vanellope whizzed by, and the trio didn't seem to have bothered us at all, the closest being Candlehead spotting us do some activity of ours. She seemed somewhat intrigued, and I think that if it weren't for Taffyta and Rancis being nearby (and me), she may have wanted to join us.

On the fifth day, I realised that Vanellope was being a lot more quiet than usual, and that was pretty strange, considering how energetic she normally was. To be honest, I don't even think I had 5 minutes of peace and quiet (except for sleep, but she'd normally roll around like she was having a nightmare. But then again, when I was small I used to do the same, so I guess that all is forgiven) in those past few days.

She had also told me what she knew about the game-King Candy, the other racers, how she was despised by the others and how her karts she made herself kept on being destroyed. When I heard that, I swore that the next time I saw them bullying her (if that ever happened again, that is) I would damage their karts, no matter how much they pleaded.

_(The start of the day)_

"So, Vanellope. What do you want to do today?"

Vanellope didn't respond, and continued to stare deeply into the wall opposite of her.

"Hello?" I waved my hand in front of her, hoping that she'd snap out of it and be back to her usual self.

No response.

"Hello?" I shouted, continuing to wave my hand in front of her face.

Still no response.

I sighed, thinking of something to say.

"KING CANDY'S HERE!" It worked, immediately making Vanellope jump up in surprise, accidentally slapping me in the face.

"Where is he?!" She shouted, running and looking around the volcano like crazy. _"How is she so good at hiding when we play hide-and-seek if she can't even stop moving around to hide from King Candy?_

After I had calmed her down and reassured her that King Candy was nowhere near and that he had no idea where we were, she glared at me angrily.

"What did you do that for?"

"I did that to snap out of that trance you were having. A 'thank-you' would've been nice."

"Thank-you?! You scared me so bad I thought I was going to die!" She shouted, irritated.

"Well, what else would've I done?"

"You could have shaken me or something which wouldn't have scared me out of my wits, stinkbrain!"

I smiled at the insult, as it meant that she was probably back to her old, joking self.

"_Anyway_, as I was saying before, what do you want to do today? Oh, and while you were staring at the wall, what were you thinking of?"

She returned back to the state when she was staring at the wall. "I dunno... I was just thinking of the fun times we had before." I could tell from her tone that there was some sadness in her.

"Vanellope, what's going on? Do you not want me to leave? You know that I have to, and anyways, we've got a way to communicate with each other!" I dug into my backpack and waved the phones around, just to show her and emphasise my point.

"Yeah, but like I said before, it's not really fun to live by yourself, especially when you know there's a whole world out there. I also know that I can't come into the real world because it'll just cause trouble for you."

To be honest, I never expected her to know or say that. She always seemed so carefree and happy, so when I was listening to her talking about how her life really was and that she knew it was bad, it seemed like she was a completely different person. She also seemed much more mature, and in fact, I was actually thinking that she was going to plead to come into the real world with me and I'd have to say no. I even had a whole argument prepared for that, just in case.

"How about we talk about the things we had done in the past few days for a small while?"

"Okay." She still seemed pretty deep in thought, so I tried to liven up the conversation a little bit.

"You go first, then."

"I don't know what to say. You should go first."

"Nah, you should go first. I need time to think."

"No!" A small smile slowly crept up on her face. "Wait... You think? Wow! I never knew that before!"

I rolled my eyes and said, "Anyways, you go first. As you think I am not smart at all, it should take me more time to think, so you should go first."

Vanellope looked slightly miffed. "Fine. How do you even think of these comebacks, anyway?"

"Logic. It's also pretty easy to learn. You're not too bad at thinking of comebacks either, really."

"Oh." Suddenly, she lit up and started to giggle. "Do you still remember the time I pushed you off the mountain when we went snowboarding? That was soooo funny. Who knew that people could actually bend that way?"

I sighed. I don't know why, but the word 'mountain' seemed to have sparked up something in my mind. Suddenly, I slapped myself on the forehead, and shouted out, "Of course! I can't believe that I forgot to go back up the mountain once we had finished dealing with Taffyta. Let's go now to see if anything valuable was broken. We can also snowboard there, like I said before."

_(A few minutes later...)_

"Well, we're here." I said, interrupting Vanellope.

She had been talking about the past experiences that she enjoyed most entire time, and while most people would find that annoying, I found that somewhat entertaining, and in fact, I felt relieved that she was no longer her old, grumpy or melancholy self. Strangely, she kept on referring back to when I was confronting the gang and stopping them from bullying her.

"Great!"

"Now promise me you won't push me off this time. I'm not taking any chances, so you go first."

She was about to protest when her eyes widened. "Uh-oh." Vanellope sounded _very_ scared, and at once I knew that it was something horrible.

"What?" I asked, full with worry.

She put a finger over her lips, and then pointed behind me.

_"Oh, no."_

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**A/N: Well, sorry, but I just had to leave it there. There were so many things that could've happened, so I'm looking for suggestions of what people would want to happen. I also take back what I said about 1 or 2 more chapters before the end, because I had a whole new idea that would probably extend the story by 3+ chapters.**

**Please review! Flames (whatever they are) are welcome!**

**Vanellope: Stop asking for reviews. It's getting annoying.**

**Me: No. I also didn't ask last time (I think), so there. I don't do it all the time.**

**Vanellope: *Sighs and walks off***


	11. C11: Avalanche

**A/N: I found the start of this really hard to decide on, so that's probably the reason why this took a long time. I also was facing a bit of a writers' block (my 5th one during the story, I think), so this may not be as good as the other chapters. Anyway, continue reading!**

* * *

I slowly turned around, dreading what I would see. At first, I was slightly confused at what she was wanting me to see, but after seeing it, I was shocked.

It was King Candy and the two donuts.

I hoped he hadn't spotted us yet, so I dragged Vanellope and ran the other way down the hill as fast as I could. To my surprise, she stopped me from dragging her and looked at me in confusion, saying, "What are you doing?!"

I put my finger over to her lips. "King Candy was right there! He could've seen us!"

She looked at me, still slightly puzzled, and whispered, "I was talking about the mountain! A single shout could've started an avalanche, stinkbrain!"

I looked back at the mountain, and sure enough, she was right. There was an enormous amount of snow piled on top of the mountain.

"Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"Then why didn't you tell me that King Candy was there?"

"I only spotted him right now!" I started to grow a bit frustrated, and she was too.

"Same here!" She was going to say more, but then we heard a revving of the engine.

I just realised that we had been talking out loud with King Candy not too far from us, and now he and his donuts were driving straight at us.

_"Why am I so dumb? I really feel like a stinkbrain right now." _You know, I can't believe I thought that.

Vanellope tugged at me with all her might, but I was heavier than her and she only managed to make me stumble before both of us fell to the ground. I got both of us back up, and shot an irritating look at her before grabbing her hand once again and staying firmly on the spot, waiting for them to come.

"Are you crazy?!" Vanellope screamed, and tried to tug at me to run away.

However, I knew that running was not going to help, as they were faster than us, so I turned to her and said, firmly, "Trust me." I had remembered something I saw on the television once, and I hoped it was going to work.

Time seemed to have slowed down as the first donuts' motorbike was getting closer to us, and when it was just a few inches away, I jumped to the side, dodging the car. Fortunately, we were on a pretty steep slope so it'd take ages for him to stop and turn around. Next, I did the same with the second donuts' motorbike, and this time there was a moderately large bump behind us, so when the motorbike missed, it hit the bump and flew away.

_"Now, only one more to deal with."_

I knew how King Candy raced, and he was both tricky and fast, so he wasn't going to fall for the trick like the others. Even if he did, his combined off-road, brake and acceleration would allow him to catch up with us easily.

Suddenly, an idea formed into my mind, and I tore out one of the candies that was in Vanellopes' hair.

"Ow! What'd you do that for?" She rubbed her hair and glared at me.

"I'm going to throw this at him, and when he brakes for a small while, we have to run forward!"

"This better work, stinkbrain!"

When the car was a few metres away from hitting us, I threw the piece of candy at his face, and sure enough, his car slowed down while swerving away from us. Afterwards, we ran up the mountain, and by the time we got to the peak, he had just recovered and was heading straight for us.

Vanellope threw a worried glance at me. "What do we do now?"

"We have to start an avalanche!" I shouted.

In the following moments, we had screamed and yelled so loud that I thought that my throat was going to burst, but finally an entire wave of snow (or white powder, don't know what type of candy that is, really) came crashing down, knocking out both donuts and King Candy.

After a few minutes, they finally managed to get back up on their feet, and they drove away, cursing at us.

"Phew!" I croaked, still sore from all that shouting.

"That was awesome, stinkbrain! Nice plan!"

I held out my hand in front of her, and she jumped up and slapped it. "High five! Now, let's see the damage caused and head back home. We're not in much shape to snowboard, and the mountain's almost wrecked!"

"Aw..." She seemed disappointed about that, and I think that she was actually planning on pushing me off the mountain again. "But can we go to the city?"

I thought about that for a moment, and considering the events that had just happened, I said, "Fine. But after today, I think that you should stay in your hideout for a while, because King Candy will probably want you to be locked up in the fungeon."

Afterwards, I turned around and looked at the screen, and my mouth dropped open.

The damage had been worse than expected.

* * *

**A/N: Sorry if any characters were out of character or if there should have been some other additional dialogue by other characters. Please review and tell me what you think (and also if there were any errors)!**

**I had to keep on thinking of the ending of this and there were so many ways I could've done this (I think there could've been possibly around 10 ways).**


	12. C12: Race

**A/N: Hi, and I take back (again) what I said about having this really long, because I figured out it wouldn't fit in with the timeline, so I can't be sure how much more there is. All I can say is that this is nearing its' end. Also, I've had very little ideas of what I could do for this chapter, so I'm sorry if I can't update too quickly.**

**Finally, I should've said this before, but I'd like to thank great-growlithe-gamer, The-Not-So-Ultimate-Writer, Dixie Darlin and El Ohkin for helping me with writing this story and giving me ideas and inspiration.**

**Anyways, continue reading!**

* * *

The damage had been worse than expected.

Well, not really.

I was hoping that one or two items would break, but it seemed like a whole row of items were knocked down, due to a chain reaction.

"Holy... Cow." I said, barely stopping myself from saying a swear word in front of a child.

"What happened?"

Although we were at the highest part of the world, it was still pretty hard to see what was going on, and even I had to jump to catch a glance of the arcade, so it wasn't any surprise that she couldn't see anything.

"Well... A glass jar was knocked onto the ground, and a whole entire row of prizes were knocked onto the floor, some slightly damaged by the shards of glass from the broken glass jar. Also, the rock seemed to hit down this machine gun from Heroes' Duty, so~"

Vanellope suddenly glitched and burst out in a fit of laughter, making me jump, a bit surprised.

"Huh?" I asked not sure why she was laughing.

"Doody," She said, glitching again.

I then realised by 'Doody' she meant something naughty (though I'm not sure what it means).

"Well..." I continued, "The damage done to the machine-gun is probably not too bad. A lot of other stuff happened as well, so I might have to go earlier to fix this up."

"What do you mean?" Vanellope asked, now still with a worried look on her face.

I sighed. "I'm not going to leave _that_ early, shorty. I'll just have to think of a way to clean this up quickly, but I'm pretty sure it won't take more than a few hours, so I'll just leave at noon or so."

To be honest, I wanted to leave at that time because I was kind of sick of eating candy. Strangely, the code in this game made it so somehow the candy tasted like it was normal candy, but it had all the attributes of some kind of normal food I would be eating (to me, that was the only explanation of how I didn't get sick and have a tummy ache).

"All right..." She said, none too pleased.

"Anyway, let's go to the city. You said you wanted to see them racing, right?" I said, trying to lighten up the atmosphere.

As we were heading to the city, I asked Vanellope about some buildings and what they were for, but it turned out that she didn't really know either. I guessed that whenever she tried, she had almost gotten caught and so couldn't really take in the surroundings.

Suddenly, I heard the sound of engines revving, meaning that a race was about to take place. However, there were no fans screaming like there normally were, so they probably were racing for fun.

"Well, here's our chance!" Vanellope said, grinning.

"Well..." I was a bit worried. Unless she had a plan for being able to watch the race without getting spotted, we would easily get caught. "What's the plan?"

"The plan is that we watch the race and not get caught, dumbo!"

"I know, but _how _are we supposed to do that?"

"Trust me!" She said, and then walked over to a spot, gesturing for me to follow.

"First, we hide here, and then when they start racing, they'll be focusing on the road and the fans will be focusing on the drivers, so we can go there..." She pointed to a destination, and then continued to speak of how we were going to be able to watch the race.

"Wow." I said, when she had finished. "You've really taken a long time to think of this, haven't you?"

"Yep," she proudly smiled. "It's a lot harder than you think when you can only view the race from the distance."

_(A few minutes later, when the races have finished)_

"Woah. How long have they been racing for?" I said, mouth open due to amazement of their driving skills.

"Ever since this game got plugged in."

"Which is how long?"

"16 years, dumbo!"

"Well I'm _sorry,_ but I didn't even know that this arcade existed when you were plugged in! I moved here last year."

"Well I'm _sorry,_" She said, in the same voice as me. "But I didn't know you moved here last year!"

I hung my head up in irritation. I guess we both had a point, though.

"Anyway, what did you ask that for?"

"I haven't seen anyone which drove that well before."

"I betcha that I could race a lot better and faster than them!"

I laughed a bit. "How about this: If you ever somehow get a kart, I wanna try driving it. It seems fairly easy enough, anyway."

She started to laugh as well. "Driving a kart is a whole lot easier said than done, stinkbrain! Only people who've got racing in their code can drive that well!"

"Oh yeah? Prove it!"

"How can I? I haven't even got a kart!"

"Then what happened to the other kart you had a few days ago?"

Her smiled dropped a bit, and I knew that I had hit a hard spot on them bullying her. "They broke it. Plus, it's not the real thing."

"Oh." Suddenly, an idea came to my mind. "How about we go around the city sightseeing!"

"Won't they catch us?" I noticed that she seemed a lot less confident.

"If they do," I said with a smirk, and then reached inside my backpack, pulling out a knife and fork, "Let's just say that I got hungry."

* * *

**A/N: I really have to learn to keep on schedule, but Easter break is ending tomorrow, so I'll update a lot less frequently.**


	13. C13: Factory

**A/N: Why do I keep on forgetting to update on this?! Anyway, I finally got the urge to start writing and got a routine** **(but for today only-Tomorrow I have school).**

**I know I should have said this before, but I do not own any of this except the story and my OC (in other words, 'me').**

* * *

"So, where do you wanna start?"

"I dunno. Which of the buildings look interesting?"

"Maybe... That one over there?" I said, pointing over to a big building perched on top of a cliff, which seemed like a factory.

"Cool!" She jumped and glitched in excitement.

"You know, what's it like to glitch?"

"It's not too bad, really. At first, you feel this tingling sensation and then you feel like you've become something watery, and after a while you suddenly seem to form back into your normal self."

Well, that's a vague description.

When we finally arrived at the factory, I saw a booth with an old-looking man with a white moustache, beard and eyebrows, blue eyes, a large nose and a triangular cone hat which made him look like a gnome inside it, probably 'guarding' the factory by sleeping. We sneaked around the booth, and made our way to the factory.

Nearing the factory, I could smell a lot of different kinds of candies, but I still couldn't really put my finger on what it was meant for, and sadly, we found the giant entrance to it locked.

"Dang it! I was~"

Vanellope gasped. "You said a swear word."

I was about to argue that the word 'Dang' wasn't a bad word and that in my world, lots of worse things were said, but I remembered that this was an E-Rated game and they probably had a substitution for that word, so I sighed and said, "So what else could've I said? Shi~"

"Yes, you could've said shoot."

I rolled my eyes and laughed, as that was not what I was going to say. But in retrospect, I thought that it was best if she hadn't heard that word.

"Anyway, let's see if we can find another way to get in."

We walked around the building, hoping to find another entrance, but to no avail. As we were about to give up, I noticed a series of small holes on the side of a wall.

Try hitting the wall there, and maybe those holes there can make a hole big enough for us to get through.

Suddenly, Vanellope glitched and almost fell off the cliff.

"Woah!" I ran to where she was and pulled her back up as fast as I could. "Be careful when you glitch, okay?"

"Fine."

After seeing her glitch, an idea popped into my head and I asked her, "When you glitch, can you glitch objects with you? Or people?"

"I think I can glitch around 2 or so objects at a time, but I've never tried people."

"Then can you control your glitch?"

"Not really. Well actually, I've never tried it before."

"Then let's try. Hold my hand and try glitching through the wall."

"Are you sure this will work?" She asked uncertainly. I guess that she was pretty scared that she'd glitch us off the cliff if she messed up.

"It has to. Imagine if it allows you to accomplish your dream!"

"Really?" She seemed a lot more eager, and grabbed my hand so hard it almost hurt.

"On 3... 2... 1... Glitch!" As soon as I said glitch, we managed to glitch through the wall.

Well, let's just say that it was the weirdest and most tiring experience that I ever had experienced in the history of weird and tiring experiences.

Like she said, I felt like my body was turning into a liquid, and it felt pretty similar to when I was getting sucked in, except that the growing pain wasn't there. I felt my body moving, towards the wall, and we were about to glitch through it when we stopped. I realised that she was trying to drag us towards through the wall, but didn't have enough power, so I willed my body (or bodies) to move with her, and finally, after what seemed like forever (although it had only been less than 3 seconds), we glitched through the wall.

As soon as we formed back into the building, I took in the surroundings as quickly as I could, and I figured out that it was just a plain room with hard rock candy all around the walls (and a few small rocks that had fallen off), except for the wall on my right which was probably the entrance that was locked when we first saw the building. There was also a small button in the room, and when I pressed it, I saw many different kinds of cars, and I immediately understood the purpose of the building.

"Vanellope! I figured out what this building is! We can~"

My sentence was cut short when I turned around and saw Vanellope.

She had blacked out.

_"Vanellope must've tired out from that glitching. Why didn't I notice that before?"_

I then heard the sound of three sirens.

_"Oh, come on! How can they recover that quickly?"_

Quickly, I grabbed a small rock and put it in my pocket, and rammed my body into the side of the wall where the holes were.

On the first try, nothing much happened.

The second try, a crack appeared.

The third try, another crack appeared, this time bigger than the first.

The fourth try, all the holes started to cracks nearby.

And on the fifth try, a big section, about as big as a door, flew out and I dashed through it, carrying Vanellope in my hands.

I ran as fast as I could to the Volcano, when I realised they were gaining on me and if I tried to get to the hideout, they would find the entrance to the volcano, so with all possible haste, I changed my direction, making one of the donuts crash, and ran towards a giant cupcake muffin (it was probably someone's house). As I neared the cupcake, I changed direction once more to the candy-cane forest, making the other donut crash. However, even when I was in the forest, King Candy still kept up and was about to run over me when I threw the rock-hard candy at him.

Fortunately, when I threw the rock it made him swerve in such a direction that he hit a candy cane, probably damaging his car really badly.

As he shouted insults at me that probably wouldn't appear in an E-Rated game, I ran away, and managed to get to the volcano without being spotted.

Or as we thought.

* * *

**A/N: Well, that's Chapter 13. I probably will be updating once or twice a week, as Easter's over and there's loads of work to do.**

**Vanellope: Hey, what's this?**

**Me: Vanellope, no! That's my~**

***Vanellope scribbles all over paper***

**Me: ~History homework. *sigh*...**


	14. C14: Together

**A/N: Gah... Got loads of homework to do. Easter is over so maybe you'll expect updates from me once a week at most. Still, this is nearing its' end, so... Yeah. Read on!**

* * *

As soon as I entered the Volcano, I was too busy concentrating on Vanellope's condition to think that someone else might be nearby.

"Hello, fart-feathers? You there?!" I shouted, shaking her as hard as I could to try to wake her up, but she remained unconscious.

After a small while of constant shaking, I figured that it was no use and put her on the bed, sitting next to her. "What do I have to do to wake her up?" I sighed.

"You could use some kind of candy to wake her up."

I perked up at the noise and turned backwards, seeing a racer. She had dark-blue hair put into pigtails, wore a purple jacket with white stripes on top of a white shirt with a blueberry imprinted on it, had bluish-purple eyes and the most notable feature about her was that she wore a blueberry hat on her head. At first, I thought it was Jubileena Bing-Bing, but then realised from the lack of red that she was actually another racer and was just a palette swap of her. I didn't really know what her name was, as she wasn't featured on the Roster so often, but if I remember correctly, it was something to do with Citruses.

Eyeing her suspiciously to see if there was anyone else near her or if she was going to spread the secret, I asked her, frowning slightly, "Who are you and how did you get here?" Now, I know I should've pinned her down or something and shouted at her face to not tell the secret or otherwise I would tear her pixel-by-pixel, but I remember not seeing her when she was bullied, and violence doesn't always solve a problem, especially when you're trying to persuade them to do something.

She stepped back slightly, and I saw a slight bit of fear in her eyes. "P-please don't hurt me, I just was passing by when I saw you go through a wall."

_"Why am I so dumb?"_ I thought to myself. _"I knew I should've looked around before going near the hideout! I knew it!"_

"It's fine. Just don't tell anyone about it, because she'll..." I paused, trying to think of a word. It's hard to say this in a reassuring tone, as the thought of Vanellope being homeless and having nowhere to go made me feel pretty angry. It was bad enough that she was excluded from all the other activities, and if she was then forced out of her own home where she wouldn't even bother anyone, that was just unfair and evil.

"She'll... What?" She asked, still slightly scared.

I suddenly became furious at how ignorant they were being. "You people have been ruining her life by tormenting her every SINGLE day, pushing her into mud, destroying her karts she had to build by HERSELF using scrap material, and if she even gets NEAR any race, she'll get put in the fungeon! Now, you don't even understand what you're doing when you're forcing her out of this... Place, that she calls home!"

She stumbled backwards, and I was about to go on and rant about how much she'd been suffering when both of us heard a groaning sound come from Vanellope, and we rushed over to her.

"Vanellope! You alright?" I asked, full of concern. I didn't even notice that the blueberry girl had followed me and watched her from the other side of the bed until she put her hand over her forehead. "What are you doing?!" I shouted at her, glaring.

She returned the glare. "I'm just seeing whether she has a fever or not! Geez!"

"Why do you even care?"

The girl looked somewhat offended by this comment, and then, to my surprise, shouted at me, "Just because I'm a racer doesn't mean I'm a stuck-up or self-centred person like Taffyta! I have feelings too, you know!"

I looked down towards Vanellope, feeling slightly ashamed. She had a point there, and in retrospect, I probably did overreact to that gesture, so I scratched my head and said to her, "I'm sorry, uh... What was your name? I don't think I've seen you that often on the roster."

"Citrusella Flugpucker." She wasn't really that angry now. "I'm sorry."

"You should be." I said, a smirk forming on my face.

"Hey! You're supposed to say that you were also sorry for what you did!" We both giggled a little. "Also, you haven't told me who you are! Which game did you come from, anyway?"

"Citrusella, I didn't come from any game."

"Yeah, right." She rolled her eyes but then she realised I wasn't joking. "But how'd you come here then?

"I was trying to help you guys start up the backup generator so when lightning struck, your game wouldn't lose electricity. But then somehow as I was connecting the wires, I guess that something happened which got me sucked in."

"Why'd you do that?"

"The owner of the arcade, Mr. Litwak, let me be in charge of the arcade for two weeks or so, and since I'm here, that's the reason why you or any other game has been played."

"So _that's_ why we didn't get played! Sticky and Torvald were going crazy and thought that the arcade was going to be closed!" We both laughed.

I was about to ask how the others were reacting to it when we were interrupted by another groan, louder and clearer this time.

"I don't r-r-really feel s-so well..." She moaned, glitching while she spoke.

"Vanellope! Are you okay? Citrusella, you said that there was some kind of candy to help her, right?"

"Well..." She hesitated for a moment, trying to remember the answer. "There should be, but it's pretty rare."

"Where can you find it?!" I shouted.

Citrusella flinched a bit. "Well... To be honest, I don't really know. But she's going to wake up soon. Look!" She pointed at Vanellope, who was starting to get up.

She seemed slightly dizzy at first, but when she saw Citrusella, all her dizziness turned into fear and she dived under the blankets (or candy wrappers, whatever).

"W-what's she d-d-doing here?" I noticed that she glitched a lot more while scared or nervous.

"Don't worry, Vanellope. She's okay, unlike the other racers." Citrusella seemed slightly miffed at the comment, so I added, "No offense. I know there are probably some other racers like you as well."

A small smile appeared on her face. "None taken."

Vanellope poked her head out from the bedsheets. "Y-you sure you won't hurt me?"

"I promise. Pinkies?"

Vanellope smiled weakly.

_"You're not going to be alone, Vanellope. Not anymore."_

* * *

**A/N: I hate Chinese homework. Aside from that, sorry this took such a long time. I had to rewrite quite a lot of parts again and again, and there was loads of homework I needed to do (and also a Science project, two Trinity examinations and a Beta-Read request which I still haven't fully done. Sorry, SnappleT!).**

**Oh, and there should be a poll about what character you like most on my profile, which _might_ affect the future chapters.**

**Vanellope: 'Might?'**

**Me: I'm not so sure where this story is heading, but that'll give me a bit of an idea.**

**Vanellope: Am I in it?**

**Me: *facepalms and sighs* Obviously, dumbo.**

**Vanellope: Vote for me, people! I order you to!**


	15. C15: Past

**A/N: Gaaaaah (again). Homework problems, once more. At least this isn't becoming too hard to write. I've also got a few more ideas for something else other than this story, but I don't know whether they'll become stories. I guess that there'll be a long time between the end of this story and the start of the sequel. Anyway, keep reading!**

* * *

I wanted to try to let Citrusella and Vanellope be as close as possible while I was here, since I only had a day left before I needed to go back to my own world. I kinda made it my personal mission to make Vanellope to feel better.

There was a bit of an awkward silence after they had shook pinkies, so I tried to get the conversation going and let them (and myself) know a bit more about each other.

Suddenly, a question which I had been asking myself for a long time popped up in my mind.

"Citrusella," I said, feeling slightly nervous (I'm not much of a people-person, okay? I also stutter when I speak at times).

"Yes?" Both Vanellope and Citrusella turned towards me.

"I need to ask you something."

"What is it?" She said, slightly irritated, wanting me to hurry up.

"Have you been bullied or anything like that before?"

"Uh..." She said, looking around nervously. "No...?"

"Citrusella. Don't lie to me. And before you deny it again, let me guess: Before Vanellope was seen, you and some other people were in Vanellope's position. Am I right?"

"Almost."

Vanellope's eyes widened when she heard this, and suddenly sat up.

"What did they do? Push you into mud? Break your karts? What happened?"

"Vanellope, lie down. You're still pretty weak from the glitching."

She was about to protest that she didn't need to rest any more when her arms wobbled and fell back down to the bed.

"Citrusella, go on." I gestured for her to continue speaking. It was pretty interesting knowing that Citrusella had also undergone the same treatment that Vanellope had gotten before, and I'm pretty sure that some people still think lowly of her.

"Well..." Her eyes darted forth and back nervously while she twiddled with her fingers. I was trying to get slightly suspicious of how nervous she was acting. "Like I said before, you were _almost_ correct."

"W-what do you mean by that?" Vanellope croaked, glitching a little.

"We weren't exactly bullied or anything, but we were looked down upon and were excluded from most events, even now, but that doesn't happen much. Even King Candy sometimes didn't invite us to parties or anything."

I made a disgusted face as soon as I heard King Candy's name. I then noticed a way of how she was speaking.

"Us." I commented.

"Huh?" She asked, slightly confused of what I was talking about.

"Us. You said 'us.' That means you and a couple of other people were bullied as well. Who were the others?"

"I t-think it was the recolors." Vanellope piped up.

"Who's that?"

"You know when there are multiple clones of a character but they have a different color?" I nodded, realising what she meant. "Well, we're looked down upon some people because they say we're just clones meant to fill up the extra space in the game, and that they would do equally as well even if we didn't exist."

I realised this was very similar to what people were saying to Vanellope, and so did she.

"I guess you could say that's why we don't join in on the bullying." She then turned to Vanellope and said, apologetically, "But I'm sorry that we didn't do anything to stop it or try to make friends with you. We don't really want to make our status go down even further, and the recolors are all like one person. If one of us messes up, all of us get blamed."

"It's okay. I understand." She seemed a lot calmer than I thought she would've been, but I guess that she felt that what they did was probably what she would've done as well.

"Thank you, princes~" She put a hand over her mouth, and both of us stared at her strangely.

"Princess?" Vanellope and I said in unison.

"Sorry, Vanellope..." She was staring at her strangely.

"Citrusella, what were you thinking about?"

"I dunno..." She said, looking at the floor. "I just suddenly saw myself in the castle with her on a throne dressed as a princess."

"Really?" Vanellope grinned. "What was I like?"

"I don't know, it was more like a vision..." She looked around her brain for ideas, and finally, she said, "I think it may have been a memory of something."

"What?!" Vanellope exclaimed. "You mean that I really was a princess?"

"Woah, hold on there, Vanny. It _may_ have been a memory. That doesn't prove anything. For all we know, it may have been a hallucination. In fact, lemme just check the time to make sure she's not seeing things from fatigue."

"You can do that?!" Citrusella stared at me, dumbfounded. At first, I thought, _"Well, duh!"_ but then I remembered that she had never seen a phone before, so I reached for my backpack and went back to the bed where the two girls were.

Taking out my second phone, I tossed it to her and said that it was an electronic device which could do lots of things, but mainly for communicating from far distances.

"Really?" She stared at the small gadget in disbelief.

"Vanellope, do you think that you could tell her about it?" I said, forgetting that she should be resting.

"Sure!" Vanellope slowly sat up, and beckoned for Citrusella to come closer, which she did without hesitation.

_"Looks like they're finally trusting each other." _I thought.

As Vanellope was teaching Citrusella about that phone, I got my own phone out and checked the time.

_12:30 AM_, it said. Well, at least it wasn't too late like 2:00 AM, I guess.

As I was about to turn around to talk to Vanellope, something caught my eye.

_100% Battery - Charging_

"What?!" I exclaimed.

"Huh?" Both girls turned to me.

"Uh... Nothing. Vanellope, when you're finished telling her about that phone, we have to go to sleep. It's getting pretty late."

"Okay."

"Shoot!" Citrusella suddenly shouted, startling both of us. "I forgot to go back to tell the recolors where I was!"

* * *

**A/N: Yea, it's shorter than what's 'normal' for my chapters. Still, this was a pretty quick update for my standards (stayed up until midnight once to finish about 90% of this). Anyway, hope you liked it, and... I HATE CHINESE HOMEWORK!**


	16. C16: Care

**A/N: Okay, so while I was on a train to a class, a whole load of ideas popped up into my mind, but then they contradict with what I've said about the sequel. Only thing I'm gonna tell you now I'm still going on with my original idea after a bit of conversation with friends.**

**Thanks to The-Not-So-Ultimate-Writer, Dixie Darlin, El Ohkin and Great-Growlithe-Gamer for the help!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything other than the story and 'me.' They belong to Disney (I think).**

* * *

"What?!" I exclaimed, again.

"I think I gotta go now..." She said, stepping back a bit, ready to leave.

"But I haven't finished teaching you!" Vanellope cried.

"Vanellope, you can teach her tomorrow, and Citrusella, please don't tell anyone about this... Yet. Okay?"

"Okay." And off Citrusella went, disappearing behind the intangible wall.

A few seconds passed before I turned around to look back to Vanellope.

"Vanellope, I hope that you didn't forget that I'll be leaving soon. Tomorrow afternoon, or evening at latest."

"I didn't." The cheerful girl had turned back into her old miserable self. "As I said before, I know you have to go back to your own world and it's for the best. Right?"

I didn't know how to respond. I really didn't want to leave her like this, but at the same time I had to go back to my own world or otherwise my friends and relatives would think I went missing and maybe even died. I also had to clean up the mess I made and give the arcade keys back to Mr. Litwak.

In the end, I managed to mumble a small "Right" and slumped back to my own sponge-bed.

It wasn't easy to sleep.

_(The next Morning)_

When I woke up, my eyes were still closed, and I felt a lot more tired than usual, so I wanted to stay there for a couple more minutes. I then heard a giggle to my right, and knew it had to be Vanellope who woke me up.

"Vanellope... Leave me alone, I'm tired..." I mumbled, moving my hand out of the bed and gesturing for her to go away.

More giggling. However, my arm suddenly dropped from exhaustion...

... and it hit a helmet.

"Ow!" Me and another voice, different from Vanellopes', said.

I suddenly sat up, fully alert with my eyes open, seeing Vanellope looking at Citrusella who was clutching her head.

"Well _you're_ here early..." I said, shaking my throbbing hand.

"Early?" Vanellope smirked. "We've been waiting hours for you to wake up and were about to pour some cream up your nose, stinkbrain!"

"Typical you." Now I was glad I had woken up. "And I suppose it was you who also thought of the idea?"

"Nope." She jabbed a finger to her right, pointing at Citrusella who seemed to be getting better from the accidental hit to the head.

I didn't really believe her and I glanced at Citrusella, but then I realised that she wasn't kidding, as Citrusella was looking slightly guilty and seemed to be staying a fair distance from me.

"I wasn't going to..." She said, shifting her feet. "It was just a joke, but then Vanellope took it for real and got a handful of cream. She was also going to~"

"Liar!" Vanellope argued.

"I'm not lying!"

"Yes you are!"

"No I'm not!"

I smirked a bit at this. _"Their bond really grew quickly."_

Citrusella was about to say more when I interrupted. "I think that it's best we just forget what you two were trying to do, and let me get ready to go out. Oh, and Citrusella, do you think you could teach Vanellope about driving a kart?"

"Hey!" Vanellope said, irritated. "I don't need teaching, it's in my code! All I need is a kart!"

"Well..." Citrusella sheepishly muttered, "Ever since King Candy lost you two twice, he decided to raise the safety measures and installed a tracker in each of our karts."

"What?! And he told you about it?" Vanellope asked, doubtful.

"Well, no, but I overheard from someone else that they heard King Candy talking to Sour Bill about it, and today when I inspected the kart I found a very small gadget which was stuck to the kart. Nobody knows how he did it all in one night and managed to return them back as well."

"Oh. That makes sense, I guess." Trying to change the subject, I asked, "What time's it, anyway?"

"Last time I checked, it was eight-colon-zero. What does that mean and why is there an 'am' there?" Citrusella asked.

"Ante meridiem." I explained.

"Huh?"

"Let me finish first. A-m stands for ante meridiem, which is in another language for before midday, and after midday is post meridiem in that language, which is basically the p-m you'll see later. And the 'eight-colon-zero' is supposed to be said as 8 o'clock. It's really complicated, and I'd rather just say that all you need to know about time is that when it's 9 am, the arcade opens and at half-past 7, the arcade closes."

I paused for a moment, and then continued. "You don't understand what I'm saying, do you?"

Both girls shook their head.

"Well, anyway, you probably are already programmed to be able to wake up at a time not too early but not too late to get ready for the arcade, I guess, so, as I said before, you probably don't really need to know this. And anyway, what I was going to say earlier was that I have to be leaving in around 5 to 7 hours."

"Leaving where?" Citrusella asked, puzzled.

"Home, a-doy!" Vanellope answered.

"Wait, you already know how to get back? Why didn't you do so earlier?" She was beginning to get really confused.

"Actually, I would've done that, but I didn't know the way out at that time, and when I found out about Vanellope's life, I decided to let her have some fun for a change. I hope you'll do the same for her later when I'm away."

"Oh." Citrusella replied, deep in thought. "I'll try."

Much to our surprise, Vanellope said, "You don't need to."

"Why?" Both of us asked, somewhat shocked.

"Because you guys already have." A small smile escaped her lips, and we both smiled back.

* * *

**A/N: Yeah, I know nothing much here happens, it was a bit sappy at the end and it was short. But I wanted to get the message that they knew I was going and that Citrusella and Vanellope were now friends. Also, I wanted to get this out before Monday.**

**Please review if there are any mistakes or things you think should be changed! Thanks!**

**Citrusella: You know you haven't said stuff like that in the past few chapters, right?**

**Me: Yep. So?**

**Citrusella: Um... Nothing. Just a statement.**


	17. C17: Hidden

**A/N: Somehow got a lot less motivated to write this, and when I started writing this, I had a huge writers' block****. Hopefully I'll get out of it soon, but the story's close to the end.**

**Disclaimer: The only things I own are the story and myself (OC). Anything else belongs to Disney.**

**Edit #1: A lot of help here from Dixie Darlin, the huge writers' block was pretty persistent.**

**Edit #2: Oh man. So sorry that I didn't update in two weeks. Cut this short, the other part will be for next chapter.**

* * *

"What have you girls been up to?"

"Well, we were talking about what to do today with ya," Vanellope answered.

"And I was hoping that we'd be able to explore the mountains." Citrusella added.

"Didn't Vanellope already tell you that we've been to the Mountain to snowboard and stuff?" I asked, confused.

"No, not _that_ mountain. Turns out there's actually a hidden part of the world somewhere in the desert which can only be seen when you're in it. While Adorabeezle is good at finding tracks, I'm good at finding hidden places. That's how I found the Volcano."

"Oh." I nodded, interested in the hidden area. "I was wondering about that."

"Come on!" She threw her hands up in the air. "That was pretty obvious - I mean, the entrance has two lollipops put there like an arch or a doorway."

"You know, you're actually right. I wonder why King Dumbo still can't find me whenever I go here." Vanellope looked slightly worried. Probably because she thought that if Citrusella could easily find her, anyone could - even Taffyta.

"Maybe he thinks he knows everything about the game and so doesn't bother to find hidden places?" I suggested. "Oh, and Vanellope, you don't need to worry about others finding this place, because, like Citrusella said earlier, people don't come here often, and even if they _do_ come here, they probably won't take much notice to this. Might think it was some kind of decoration or something, right?"

I tried to not let Vanellope over-think about this, because... Well, that's what friends are for, right? Plus, if she did over-think about it, she might do something naive later.

"I guess so. Thanks, stinkbrain." She said, but I was pretty sure that she still was wary of how easily this place could be found.

I smirked when I heard the nickname. "Well, anyway, I should go get ready for the day, turd-for-brains."

"Oh, and I almost forgot to tell you, I have a surprise for you two!" Citrusella piped up.

Vanellope's ears perked up at the word 'surprise'. Turning around to look at her, she asked, "Really? What is it?"

"Wouldn't be a surprise if she told you now, would it?" However, I was equally as interested in the surprise as Vanellope was and asked, "But when are you going to show it to us, then?"

"I'm going to show you it when you're about to leave. So tell me, okay?"

I nodded in response.

_(A few minutes later, heading to the hidden location)_

"Citrusella, you sure about this?"

"Yep."

I felt slightly scared at how far we were going. Even Vanellope, who had spent the time while being alone exploring the outskirts of the world, hadn't gone this far. However, Vanellope seemed to trust her and didn't even feel the slightest bit nervous, so I supposed it was fine.

We continued walking for a few more minutes, and I was about to ask whether we were there yet and how farther we had to go, when Citrusella suddenly stopped, causing Vanellope to slip and push me face-first into the sand. As I got up and spat the powder out of my face, both of them laughed.

"Hey, watch it, will you?!" I playfully shouted. _"I'm gonna have to pay her back for that."_

"Well, we're here."

To my surprise, it wasn't Citrusella who said that, but Vanellope.

"Really? How can you tell?" I asked, puzzled by how she knew. I mean, she's never been here before, yet she knows exactly where the boundary for seeing the hidden world is. Who wouldn't find that creepy, or at least somewhat strange?

"I'm not so sure, but I just can feel it. You know?" She looked up at me expectantly.

Shaking my head, I was about to answer when Citrusella spoke up.

"Actually, I think I know what you mean. I think that your glitch actually allows you to see or sense things that others can't see, like lines of code not meant to be seen. Pretty cool, actually."

_"So that's how she found out that the Volcano could be entered!"_ I thought to myself.

Vanellope giggled, and then answered, "You know, other than the dumbo over here," She glanced over to me, and continued, "You're the only one who's said my glitch was cool."

Citrusella's eyes widened, and she blinked for a small while before replying, "Really? That's strange. All I can say is that if the recolors knew you could do stuff like that, they'd be amazed."

"And that's not all," I added. "You can teleport, even through walls!"

"Yeah, but it really drains my energy." She argued back. "Anyway, are we gonna see the hidden land or not?"

She walked forward a few steps, and suddenly, she disappeared. "Wha...~" I exclaimed, mouth wide open in shock.

"Oh, and I forgot to tell you that you can't hear or see anyone else on the other side." Citrusella said, and then walked forward, disappearing in a flash of light.

_"Guess I'll do the same thing too."_ I thought, and walked forward.

When I crossed into the hidden world, I felt a slight tingle all over my body for a small while, and felt a small wind blowing. Looking up, I gasped at what I saw.

_"Amazing... It's like the real world..."_

* * *

**A/N: Welp, lots of tension and stress finally went away. School performance finally done. :)**


	18. C18: Strange

**A/N: Well, this is almost finished and the next updates may come in faster. The writers' block I've been having the entire time is that I know the first part I'm gonna write, and also the last part, but the part in the middle is just too boring.**

* * *

I gasped at what I saw.

Unlike the 'normal' side of Sugar Rush, there were lots of different sizes, shapes and colors there. Also, the sky was not the normal pink sky with white cotton candy clouds, but blue with grey-ish black clouds. However, the general formation of the landscape was similar to Sugar Rush. Even the houses owned by the racers were there. The only thing that was missing was the racetrack.

"Woah..." Both me and Vanellope said at the same time.

"I know, right?" Citrusella said, gesturing over to the world. "Strangest world I've ever seen, if you ask me."

"Actually, not really." I shook my head, and then scanned the area carefully. "It really looks like the real world." A thought then hit me and I almost slapped myself on the forehead. _"Of course, you dolt! Sugar Rush was made by real people!"_

A voice interrupted my thoughts. "Then do you know why they put this here?"

I turned around to the source of the voice and saw Citrusella. After thinking for a small while, my eyes lit up. "Of course!" I exclaimed. "Sugar Rush has to be based off something, and so the creators probably put this here while constructing the real world. They also probably forgot about it so it's still here. What do you actually go here for, really?"

Citrusella was about to respond, when Vanellope asked, "Do you think we could snowboard on these Mountains?"

"Yeah. I've only went up one of the Mountains, but then the entire world started to get dark." Citrusella answered.

"Really?" Vanellope stared at her, mouth wide open.

"Yeah, that's when it turns dark. You know when the arcade shuts down?" They both nodded their heads. "Well, if you've actually ever tried to look out from the screen at that time, you should be able see that outside the arcade, it gets dark. It's what we call night."

"Oh, so _that's_ what it was." Citrusella said, looking slightly less stressed. "I thought it was another glitch. W~" She stopped mid-sentence, seeing Vanellope flinch from what she had just said. "Sorry..."

Vanellope sighed, and said, "It's alright. I just hate being a glitch. If I wasn't a glitch and had a kart, I'm sure I would win the roster race all of the time." She looked at us hopefully. "Right?"

I smirked. "I'm sure you would. But remember, winning isn't everything. It's the fun and joy of racing which makes it worthwhile. I'm sure that's the reason why Citrusella still continues to race." I glanced over at her, and turned back at Vanellope. "Don't be too unhappy when you lose, okay? There's always a next time, and plus, they've got more than a decade of driving experience while you're still a newbie!"

"Hey!" Vanellope pouted at me.

"Are you guys gonna keep on arguing all day long or are you gonna explore this world with me?" Citrusella shouted.

"Coming!" Vanellope answered back. She then whispered in my ear, "I bet I can beat you to her!" And took off.

I smiled while shaking my head, and then ran after her.

* * *

Afterwards, we explored the world, and strangely, the interior was decorated. Another strange thing was that there were stairs inside the mountains as well.

_(Some hours later, inside a cave in a mountain)_

"Strange..." I observed, "Why would they decorate the interiors if this was only going to be used as something to be based-off?"

"You know, I was about to ask that question." Citrusella smirked.

"I honestly am not sure. If they're gonna even focus on the small details such as this," I looked at a hanging stalactite and broke off a small part, which regenerated almost instantly. "Then this probably was how the game would've looked until someone decided to scrap the idea. I guess they still wanted to base it off the world, so they kept it here." I then suddenly remembered something not too long ago. "In fact, I remember reading the foru~ I mean, I remember reading a bit about this game, and it said that it had undergone a 'huge change in plan.' This was probably it. They also deleted a character which had something to do with Oreos.

Citrusella and Vanellope gasped. "They deleted a character?"

I nodded. "I think. The people said they had too much in common with another character. Strange, if you ask me, though. There are recolors here, so why did they delete her? What was so special about her?"

"Maybe she was too glitchy?"

"Maybe. I'm not~" I suddenly realised something was wrong with Vanellope, and stood still for some time.

"Hello? Stinkbrain in the house?" Vanellope waved her hand over my face.

"Vanellope." I stared at her, looking very serious.

"Y-yes?" She stepped back, slightly scared by the sudden change of emotion.

"You haven't glitched in quite a while."

"You know, he's right. You haven't glitched a single time in this place." Citrusella added.

"Wait, let me try glitching." Vanellope clenched her fists, and closed her eyes tightly, trying to concentrate.

Nothing happened.

"Let me try again." Vanellope said, slightly worried.

Nothing happened again.

"Wait! I'm sure I can do it..." Vanellope said, this time clearly a hint of desperation in her voice.

But once again, nothing happened.

And suddenly, just to make the atmosphere _way_ better, the mountain shook vigorously, as if there was an Earthquake.

* * *

**A/N: Yes, the person who has Oreos as her theme will probably be mentioned. And no, she is not an OC. In the WiR wiki, there's actually a page of her, and she's said to have been scrapped due to the fact that she looked way too similar to Vanellope. Name? Find out yourselves, or in the next chapter.**


	19. C19: Deleted

**A/N: Yeah, I didn't update for a week. But I had a vacation, and there was lots of homework. It's good that I completed it (though not necessarily on time :/).**

* * *

_Suddenly, the mountain shook, as if there was an Earthquake._

"Look out!" I shouted, dragging to two girls by the hand close to me while looking for an exit as quick as possible. "We have to find a way out!"

The rumbling stopped.

"Huh?" We all said, confused at what had just happened.

"It came from down there..." Citrusella said, still holding my arm tightly.

"Then let's go!" And Vanellope ran down the conveniently made stairs right next to us which seemed to be made of ice.

"Wuh~ Wait!" I called after her, but she didn't stop running. "Ugh..." I sighed to myself.

"We have to go after her. What if the mountain explodes?" Citrusella said, full of concern, and we ran off after her.

Now, you can see that I had a slight bit of difficulty of deciding to or not. This was technically still in the game, and Vanellope, though a glitch, could still regenerate. Even if she didn't, her glitch powers would've been able to keep her safe as well. However, I, on the other hand, wasn't from the game and couldn't regenerate.

_"Wait a minute..."_ I thought. _"If there was actually lava in the Volcano, wouldn't those ice stairs melt already?" _And without further thinking, I nodded at Citrusella and ran after Vanellope, both of us desperately shouting her name.

When we got to the bottom of the stairs, we saw a trail of footprints.

"That way!" I shouted, pointing to the place where the footprints were heading towards.

As I was about to run, I got yanked back. "No, that way!" Citrusella argued, pointing in the opposite direction.

"Wait a minute..." I looked around the area.

_"What?!"_

I saw two sets of footprints, both alike in shape, size and density.

* * *

"What are we going to do now?! Those footprints can't be ours, it's our first time here!" Citrusella exclaimed.

"We have to stick together. I'm not going to afford losing you or Vanellope. Let's just follow those footprints and hope they lead to Vanellope."

"All right." Citrusella responded, determined to find her.

As we followed the track of footprints, we felt the temperature begin to rise, and sure enough, when we got to the centre of the source of heat, there was a big, bubbling pool of...

"Cola?!"

"I guess you're right. They were probably going to use this for Sugar Rush, but they changed while they were still making it. That's why this is still here." Citrusella pointed out.

As I scanned the room, I saw a small bit of hair, filled with candy, sticking out behind a small rock. _"A-ha!"_ I silently walked to the rock, and suddenly grabbed the hair and pulled it backwards, trying to surprise her.

However, the result was much more different than I thought.

"Ow!" A voice shouted, but it was different from Vanellope's.

When I looked to see who made the sound, I saw a girl who looked very similar to Vanellope, except with black as her main color. She, like Vanellope, had black hair with sprinkles (I should've made note that Vanellope had candy in hers), a black coat with two fine white lines with a striped black and white t-shirt, and a black and white hat which, to me, looked strangely like an artist's hat. Don't judge.

The girl, who I previously thought was Vanellope, jumped out of her hiding spot.

"What was that for?!" She shouted. As she turned to face me, her glare slowly turned into a look of shock. "What are you doing here?! Which game are you from?!" She then realised that Citrusella was also here, and to my surprise, she knew her name. "Citrusella, what are you doing here? You can't stay here!"

"Wait wait wait wait wait..." I said, trying to figure out what was going on. "What do you mean by we can't stay here? And also, what's your name and why are you here?"

"Shouldn't I be asking you the same question?" The girl replied.

"Well, somehow you know that she's Citrusella, so I don't need to introduce her, I think..." I looked at Citrusella, who seemed just as puzzled as I was, and continued, "And my name's John. I'm not from any game, which means I'm from the outside world."

"Oh no..." The girl said to herself, and the turned to me. "Is there anyone else with you?"

Citrusella responded, finally joining in on the conversation. "Yeah, she~" But she was cut short by the girl.

"Then we've got to go get her! I'll explain on the way." She took off back to the place where we came from, us following her. "Do you know what place this is?" She asked, while we were running."

"Yes, isn't this like the 'drafting' place of the game?"

"You're partially right. In fact, this is the delete file - Basically the trash can."

"Delete file?!" Citrusella said, almost tripping over.

As I helped Citrusella regain her balance, the girl continued, "Yes. And every once in a while, the game updates, and it wipes out some part of this world to save space. That's why you've got to get out of here!"

I found this slightly suspicious, and asked her, "Then why are you still here?"

Citrusella added, "And I haven't seen you before, so why do you know my name?"

"Well, _Citrusella,_" She said, in a slightly mocking tone, "I was part of this game too, so I should know your names, right? And John, it's not that I want to live here. I _can't_ leave."

"You can't leave?!" Citrusella gasped.

"That's because I was moved to this file by the creators."

We finally reached the room where there were two identical sets of footprints, but still no sign of Vanellope. A thought came across my mind and I said, "This way! Oh, and what's your name, anyway?"

"It's Oreanna. Oreanna Sprinkletop."

_"Wait, the deleted character?!"_

* * *

**A/N: Well, finally finished it and sorry if it's shorter than the others. After this story is finished I'm gonna take a loooooong hiatus, but the next story should have updates once every 2 days or something because... SUMMER VACATION!**


	20. C20: End (IAN For now)

**Important Authors' Note - Maybe a Hiatus:**

Sorry if I got ya hopes up. I realised that my internet connection at my house isn't working, so it may take a while for it to get fixed. Don't know when it will, but this is just to say that I may not be able to update my stories. I will eventually finish this, though.


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